Elgin pitcher Jessica Rago had 11 strikeouts and only gave up one run Tuesday, by all accounts pitching well enough to get her Maroons a win.
But Larkin pitcher Sarah Hansen and her defense were a little bit better in the Upstate Eight River game.
Hansen only gave up three hits in tossing a 1-0 shutout against Elgin, the second time this season the Royals have beaten the Maroons.
“I don’t when that happened last,” Larkin coach Ann Vogt said. “I don’t know if we’ve ever beaten Elgin twice.”
Hansen gave up singles in the second, sixth, and seventh innings and her defense handled everything else Elgin’s hitters could muster.
“That was one of the most fun games to play I’ve ever been in. My outfield was the best today so shout-out to them,” Hansen said of Megan Chwee, Samantha Wahl and Mirabella Aguinaga.
Larkin (5-19, 4-11) had five hits and got the lone run in the fifth inning, while Elgin (3-22, 2-14) had leadoff hitters reach base twice but failed to advance them.
Hansen led off the fifth with a single and Jocelyn Jimenez pinch ran for her. A passed ball sent Jimenez to second and she advanced to third on a dropped third strike.
Samantha Wahl then grounded out to score Jimenez before Rago ended the inning with a strikeout.
“(Jimenez) is lightning quick and as soon as (Hansen) got on I knew I wanted to go to her. She was ready to go,” Vogt said.
Larkin had a runner on second with no outs in the fourth and a runner on third with no outs in the sixth, but Rago posted two strikeouts in each situation and got groundouts to end each threat.
“If I have a goal not to let that girl score, I’m not going to let that girl score,” Rago said. “It seems like some days when we have offense, we don’t have defense, and sometimes it’s the other way around.
“This was one of those days when we just didn’t have offense. It was mostly (Hansen’s) off-speed stuff that threw us off.”
Hansen and catcher Sophia Young had batters fooled consistently with Hansen’s changeup.
“It’s Sarah’s third year on the varsity and we’ve worked hard on that,” Vogt said. “And give a lot of credit to (Young).
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“She has come a long way calling a game, knowing we can’t throw the same pitch over and over, move them in and out, and throw the changeup more to keep hitters off-balance.”
Elgin’s Jenna Lombardo bunted her way on with one out in the seventh and Rachel Turner bunted her to second, but Hansen got the game’s final batter to pop out to second base.
Wahl had two hits for Larkin. Wahl and teammate Haley Bohne tripled. The Royals also got a single from Alexa Urbanik. Destiny West singled and Sabrina Stockman doubled for Elgin.
“Both teams played good defense. We’re a fly-ball hitting team and the wind has been blowing in most of the spring,” Elgin coach Nick Bumbales said. “Hopefully the wind will start blowing out a little and things will turn around for us.”
Larsen is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.